Ramil Ayuman (leftmost), Pastor Jun Alcover (center), Cebu City Councilor Prisca Niña Mabatid (rightmost).
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Cebu City Councilor Prisca Nina Mabatid has accused two of her partymates of harassing her and falsely accusing her of trying to convince three alleged victims of sexual harassment against a City Hall official, her ally, to allegedly retract their complaint.
Mabatid said that Ramil Ayuman and Pastor Alcover Jr., who are also members of Partido Barug-PDP Laban, had falsely accused her of siding with Lorenzo Basamot, division head of the Records and Archives of the Department of General Services, who was accused of sexual harassment by three of female employees.
Basamot, who was a former Kamputhaw barangay chief, is also a political ally of Mabatid, who supported her during her candidacy in the May 2019 elections.
Ayuman and Alcover claimed that Mabatid allegedly tried to ask other barangay chiefs to publicly show support to Basamot.
They said Mabatid’s action was not in consonance with her being the chairperson of the council’s Committee on Women, Children and Family Affairs.
An allegation that Mabatid had denied doing. She also denied claims that she tried to convince the three alleged victims to allegedly retract their complaint against Basamot.
Mabatid said during her privilege speech at the City Council session on November 26, that even told the three women that she would help them file their case.
“I even encouraged them to file the case. The allegations of Mr. Alcover and Mr. Ayuman are not true. I am a victim of harassment by Ramil Ayuman and Jun Alcover,” said Mabatid.
Mabatid said the two former government officials were bitter losers of the May 2019 elections, as they failed to win a spot in the council.
She also said that she sympathized with Basamot, whom she described as a victim of trial by publicity since no case had yet been filed against him at the Office of the Ombudsman as of press time.
She encouraged Mayor Edgardo Labella to wait for the investigation of the City Legal Office before suspending Basamot.
For his part, Ayuman said that Mabatid was trying to allegedly cover her tracks after her alleged fixing of Basamot’s case.
He claimed that Mabatid’s publicly naming the victims in her privilege speech, even if she has asked the Council’s Secretariat to cross them out of the minutes.
He said that it just showed her ignorance in caring for the welfare of women.
“Iyang gipanganlan ang mga babaye. Luoy kaayo, samot na sila mahadlok. Mao na manawagan tas Gabriela to really denounce Mabatid’s actuations,” said Ayuman in a phone interview with CDN Digital.
(Mabatid named the victims. The victims will be scared after this. That is why I call on Gabriela to really denounce Mabatid’s actuations.)
Ayuman said Mabatid should resign from her post as chairperson of the Committee on Women, Children, and Family Affairs claiming that Mabatid had no “moral ascendency” to stay in the position. /dbs